The Final Edition

These are classic and eerily prescient sketches selected by archivist and writer Joe Davis. It's all there - the apocalypse, Republican cruelty, black people killed by police, Trump running for office, even social distancing, in a way. And somehow, no matter what happens, all the money goes to the same largest corporations. Funny, that.

In memory of John S. Marshall, one of the founding members of "The Final Edition."

This week … we’ve all been indoors. Same as you. Didn’t even record last week, and probably won’t until the end of the month. Recording this is the first time I’ve spoken out loud all day. So … you know … typical weekend, really.And yet we have new sketches at the top of the show, all about diseases - followed by classic sketches, also about diseases and germs. Communicable diseases in particular tend come up now and then - which is why good leadership involves … you know … recognizing and planning for that.

We whisper a sweet goodbye to Mike Bloomberg - and an actual, sincere goodbye (more or less) to James Lipton. Also, you just moved your clock forward - and yes, it’s stupid, and no, we shouldn’t be doing it anymore.The entire second half of the show is the final episode of the audio play, “The Invisible World.” I apologize for the differences in the sound quality from one moment to the next with that production. I didn’t record it in a studio. I was just lugging a laptop and a couple of microphones all over New York. You get what you get.

This week, Utah sees all the other states going their own way and decides it’s going to do the same. Ben and I talk about soup - which we both enjoy. We have an outtake from a recording session in which Ben is just trying to be nice. And we determine the value of human life. The answer is … well … you’re not gonna be surprised.

This week, I had the flu. … Well, I don’t think I had THE flu. I had A flu. … Maybe. Anyway, my voice was shredded. So we put that to good use. And Valentine’s Day is coming up. So we talked about … love? I guess? If that’s how you care to define it. Plus, one of our writers has really strong opinions about Harley Quinn. And two members of the case have lived in Philadelphia at some point, so we get obsessed with their hockey team mascot. You don’t have to know anything about hockey to get the jokes. But do yourself a favor and look up news articles about the Flyers’ mascot, Gritty. It’s hilarious if you don’t listen to the show.

We’re heading for the first political primaries, if you’ve got the stamina for it. We sit through class with a substitute teacher. Again - stamina. Some entire continent burned down. And. You know. Guns.

We are back with all new material - some of it about Christmas, some of it about the new year already having gone to shit, some of it about growing older, and a little of it, of course, about drugs.Ah drugs.Also, we’re starting a new five-part web serial called The Invisible World. This one is set in Connecticut. Don’t ask.

This week, we’re heading into Thanksgiving … and if you’re thankful for this show, you should probably thank the guy who started it. Which would be Tony Hendra. So. All the sketches this week were written by Tony - as far as I can tell. It’s a little tricky to be sure without actually telling him we were going to do this. But I’ve confirmed as much as I could with Jeff Kreisler - and I’ve listened for certain signs that I think characterize a Tony Hendra sketch. They’re always clever, they’re sometimes tragic, and they tend to reference literary and religious sources.

I know I said we’d be starting a new audio drama series this week. But we’ll wait, because we’ve got a lot of theme shows happening over the next few weeks.So this week, we’ve got sketches about patriotism. Because everybody right now is questioning everybody else’s. For some reason. Not sure why. Must be something on TV. I don’t keep up.